Dr. Suskind is a Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and is Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health. She has dedicated her research and clinical life to optimizing foundational brain development and preventing early cognitive disparities and their lifelong impact. She is also the author of the bestselling book, Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain.  This episode Stew and Dana discuss her latest book, Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise, and the ways parents can use d ..read more

Diana Kapp is the author of Girls Who Run the World and now Girls Who Green the World; Thirty-Four Rebel Women Out To Save Our Planet. Her work as a journalist has taken her inside San Quentin prison and to deepest Afghanistan. She’s covered teen suicide clusters in Palo Alto, apps and bots to fight depression, and her father falling headlong in love at 85. She’s also worked for a senator and a biotech start-up, made ads for Nike, and helped launch women’s sportswear retailer Lucy. She’s got an MBA from Stanford, loves the Sawtooth Mountains, Neil Young, her 5am running club, and climbing moun ..read more

Dr. Amy Beacom is the founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership, the first consultancy in the US to focus exclusively on parental leave, and the author of The Parental Leave Playbook: Ten Touchpoints to Transition Smoothly, Strengthen Your Family, and Continue Growing Your Career.  She is recognized as the United States’ premiere expert on the personal and professional interplay around parental leave for employers and employees. Amy created the first evidence-based parental leave transition coaching model. She has trained and supervised parental leave coaches both in the ..read more

Christine Porath is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. She’s the author of the bestseller Mastering Civility and co-author of The Cost of Bad Behavior. Her most recent book is  Mastering Community: The Surprising Ways Coming Together Moves Us from Surviving to Thriving. In this episode, Stew talks with Christine about her research on the waning of community and the effective ways of reweaving the fabric that holds our society together.  She describes contemporary examples from sports, business, health care, nonprofits and other organizati ..read more

Gianna Driver is Chief Human Resources Officer at Exabeam who was a student in Stew’s Total Leadership class 20 years ago.  After spending five years running a global fair trade organization, she went on to build a highly successful career in human resources and recently started a new job at a company that fights cybercrime.  Gianna manages the strategy and processes for building, investing in, and retaining top talent at Exabeam, enabling employees to do their best work. Prior to Exabeam, she was the Chief People Officer at BlueVine, a private fintech company based in Redwood City ..read more

Lynda Gratton is recognized as a global thought leader on the future of work and a Professor of Management Practice at London Business School where she directs ‘Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies.’ Lynda is the founder of the advisory practice HSM and since 2008 has led the Future of Work Research Consortium which has brought together executives from more than 100 companies. Her books have been translated into more than 15 languages. She has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by HR Magazine and named by 'Business Thinkers 50' as one of the top 15 business thinkers in th ..read more

Kevin Hancock is the CEO of Hancock Lumber Company, one of the oldest and best-known family businesses in America, and author of The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey into the Business of Shared Leadership. Hancock Lumber is an eight-time consecutive recipient of the ‘Best Places to Work in Maine’ award. Kevin himself is a recipient of the Ed Muskie Access to Justice award, the Habitat for Humanity Spirit of Humanity award, the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen award, and the Timber Processing Magazine Person of the Year award. He’s also a member of the Maine Indian Tribal State Commi ..read more

Larry Hirschhorn is a Principal and one of the founders of the Center for Applied Research, also known as CFAR (which had its origins at the Wharton School). CFAR is a management consulting firm with offices in Philadelphia and Boston. Larry was also a founder of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO) and the founder and director of Dynamics of Consulting, a program for experienced coaches and consultants. He has published several books and many articles linking organizational functioning to psychodynamics, among them The Workplace Within and Reworking ..read more

Vanessa Bohns is a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Her new book is You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why it Matters.  Vanessa holds a PhD in psychology from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review, and her research has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and NPR’s Hidden Brain. In this episode, Stew talks with Vanessa Bohns about eye-opening research on how people underv ..read more

Alec Ross is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation. A former senior advisor in the Obama Administration, his book is called The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People — and the Fight for Our Future. Alec is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at The University of Bologna Business School and a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm. During the Obama Administration, Alec served as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Secretary of State, to help modernize the practice of diplomacy and advance America’s foreign policy interests. He also served as the Convener ..read more